rengwu/chartr

An organizable, terminal-first agentic workspace with plugins

chartr – an agent‑centric terminal workspace

What it is

  • A native desktop application (macOS & Linux) built with Rust and the GPUI UI toolkit.
  • Provides a configurable, pane‑based terminal environment where you can keep projects, tools, and AI‑oriented command‑line agents together.

Key capabilities

  • Spaces (folders) – each folder becomes a space that stores its own terminal tabs, split panes and plugin layout. A “Free” space lets you work outside any project.
  • Tabs & split panes – move tabs, split them horizontally or vertically, and group terminals with side‑by‑side plugins.
  • Durable sessions – thanks to the companion Herdr service, terminal processes keep running after you quit chartr; reopening restores the exact layout and live sessions.
  • CLI agents integration – register any existing AI/LLM CLI tool (e.g., Claude, OpenAI, custom scripts) and launch it with custom arguments, environment variables, and prompts directly from the workspace.
  • Plugin ecosystem – built‑in plugins for browsing, prompt reuse, and skill management; you can add more or create your own with HTML/CSS/JS.
  • Wayfinder map – a visual “live map” of your work that shows tickets, tasks, and lets you launch agents with the right context.
  • Personalisation – themes, fonts, shortcut rebinding, and a native Settings UI.

Why you might care

  • Keeps AI‑driven workflows (prompt engineering, tool‑calling agents, retrieval‑augmented generation pipelines) organized alongside the code they operate on.
  • Eliminates the need for multiple terminal windows or separate IDEs; everything lives in one configurable layout.
  • Persistent sessions mean long‑running inference or data‑processing jobs continue even when you close the UI.

Getting started

  1. Install via the instructions in docs/installation.md (pre‑built binaries for macOS/Linux).
  2. Run chartr and create a space by opening a folder.
  3. Add terminals, split panes, and enable plugins from the Settings menu.
  4. Register your favourite LLM CLI agents (e.g., claude, openai) through the Agents panel.

Documentation & community

  • Website: https://chartr.dev/
  • Full docs: docs/README.md
  • Development wiki: docs/wiki/index.md
  • Related projects: Zed (GPUI UI components), Herdr (persistent terminals), Wayfinder‑maps (the map view), and skills (prompt/skill library).

License

  • GPL‑3.0‑or‑later.

Related

  • Project
    asheshgoplani/agent-deck

    Agent Deck is a terminal-based command center that helps developers manage, monitor, and orchestrate multiple AI coding agent sessions from a single interface.

  • Project
    herdrdev/herdr

    A persistent runtime for coding agents that allows them to run in background terminals across multiple machines with session restoration and status tracking.

  • Project
    umputun/agterm

    agterm is a minimal macOS terminal that groups shells into named workspaces and exposes a full control API (`agtermctl`) for scripts and AI agents to create sessions, type commands, split panes, run overlays, and read back output. It integrates optional Claude/Codex skills so agents can manage their own layout and report status, and it supports restoring live sessions after a restart. Distributed as a signed app for Apple‑silicon Macs and via Homebrew.

  • Dispatch
    Herdr: A Terminal-Based Agent Multiplexer

    Herdr is an open-source agent multiplexer that allows users to manage and interact with multiple AI agents within a terminal environment.

  • Project
    agent-launch/agent-launcher

    A local desktop workspace that lets users configure and run multiple coding-agent CLIs from a single interface, managing API profiles and project sessions.